So today I went to the bucs(Star type) and on the way out with my soy cinnamon dolce frappachino I notice something hanging off my SD...

Part of the rocker panel has come off the car and is hanging by a bit of undercoat spray I put on there two years ago. So naturally I pull the "part"(mostly a glob of rust) off and toss it aside.

So my SD has actually come to the point where it's officially "falling apart". It has spent it's entire life in the midwest and looks like the rust was fixed years ago. Both doors on the drivers side have large rust holes under the cladding(never had the pass side off). Rockers on both sides are shot, jack points are all but unusable. Large rear wheel well "chunks" missing. Two holes is pass floor and the "frame" rails behind the front wheels are both rusting through. Both original fenders came apart and on the left side I lost the cladding on the highway 2 years ago. I have since put nice rust free fenders on it. The hood is nice, being aluminium, but was painted along with the fenders with a paint brush... I paid a guy off CL to paint the front.. he claimed to be a professional. $100 later and I have Ford Taurus silver brushed on. Bundts are black and pitted, spare is new with a euro metric tire, also new.. maybe it's original?

Seats are shot, covered in sheep skins, dash has a cover on it(never looked underneath), wood is cracked, odometer stopped working at 422,922 miles. Rear springs actually rusted in to peices.. I have pics. I put 100k mile springs in there and solved the sagging. paint is falling off the trunk and its all gone from the roof. The sides actually do shine very well.. except the rust holes. I have not washed it in over a year... never waxed it.

The Good... very very reliable. Runs and drives very good. All electrics work, all new brakes, slight flaring that I have never really tried to fix. Oh and I put euro bumpers on it.

There is no way it can be saved. Can't sell it.. not worth anything. All the good parts are the old worn out engine(a little over 5 degrees of chain stretch), brakes, glass(rear is seperating though), etc etc. None of the "good" stuff is any good.. ie. body parts. It's a great winter car. Always, I mean ALWAYS, starts right up. Heat is nice and warm. I have a set of snow tires for it.

But I have 4 cars! I personally only need one, two at the most. I need to get rid of atleast one car before winter and maybe two. I would like to get actual money for my cars... can't really do that with the SD. I have two cars that sit all the time, 300D and the 300TD. We drive the SD(just drove to Toronto in it) and I drive the hell out of the 400E, such a smooth powerful car.

I would be tickelled to have an '85 SD or SDL. '85 for the nice final drive ratio and the SDL for the obvious. My w124's are nice cars.. I like the w124 a lot.. but w126 is the classic Mercedes style. I don't know if I could stand being without a w126. In October all my registrations will be up for renewal. Indiana charges excise tax everytime you renew a a plate. The tax is figured from the ORIGINAL purchase price of the car. After ten years the tax is capped, thank god, but still it's $50 per car, per year, in addition to the other renewal fees. Antique plates are still charged excise tax , I tried.

Sorry for the long thoughts.

What do you do with a car you love that is falling apart?

PS: The SD was my first Mercedes.

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08 R320 CDI current

Past
95 E420
87 300D Turbo 5spd
90 300TE
83 300SD
85 300TD
92 400E
85 190D